Posted in Access

In a presentation for @media entitled, Zoom the Web, Joe Clark revealed and explained several possible options (a new trend, hopefully) for making sites more accessible and readable for low-vision users. In the continuing effort to make our sites accessible as possible, many have assumed accessibility best practices deal primarily with blind people who often use screen readers. continued

Earlier today, I had the honor of giving a presentation about the beauty of CSS at Digital Design World. The crowd seemed warmly receptive to hearing about (and seeing) how they can make better-looking sites by putting into practice some basic design principles, practical tips, and a few advanced techniques.

Tomorrow afternoon, I co-present a session on “Design and Accessibility” with Andrew Kirkpatrick, Project Manager from the WGBH National Center for Accessible Media. I’m looking forward to sharing the stage with Andrew, and discussing how paying more attention to accessibility does not mean resorting to insipid design. continued

Anitra Pavka wrote an article for Digital Web a little over a week ago. Accountability of Accessibility and Usability digs into some of the reasons Southwest Airlines was brought to court over their alleged inaccessibility. Anitra explores some basic ways to prevent such lawsuits, and touches on two sides of the debate over whether the ADA covers websites as public spaces.

Last night, I received an email message from a gentleman named Mark. The subject was: appreciate your blog and designs. I’ve received quite a few messages like this recently. But there was something about Mark’s message that had a different gravity to it. The last words of his message read: By the way, I am blind … continued

The issue can’t escape mention, even though it’s a few days late. Robert Gumson and Access Now recently launched a suit against Southwest Airlines, claiming that Southwest’s website was inaccessible to the blind, thus was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Last Friday, a U.S. District Judge in Florida dismissed the accessibility suit, [.pdf, 1.0 MB] stating the ADA is only applicable to physical spaces like office buildings and restaurants, and does not apply to the Web. continued

Tom, a colleague and IA in our User Experience group in Boston, took the time today to run some Wired News pages through the Bobby accessibility evaluator. For comparison, he tested both the old and new WN designs, along with Cnet’s News.com. As I noted in one of my own tests about a month ago, the site is still not perfect from an accessibility perspective. But the tests and comparisons Tom reported back show the new design will help us make significant progress compared with the old design (and the design of our competitor). The report showed the following: continued